Inspirations for future creations

nfc

Within the industry, it is becoming increasingly apparent with each passing day that mobile platforms are becoming an indispensable part of digital marketing. For a second, I’d like you to imagine you are about to leave the house and are rounding up all the essentials for your day. What did you take with you? I’d wager that your phone was amongst your personal set of ‘essentials’.

It is currently estimated that around 4.8 billion, yes – billion, people own a mobile phone (MindJumpers) , whether that be feature or smart. Highlighting the importance of mobile marketing, and the potential reach it can achieve. Another fact that may interest you is that the world’s most populous countries of India and China are still experiencing increases in mobile phone user penetration. China is currently around 65% penetration (Pasqua and Elkin) as opposed to North America and Europe that enjoy consistently high penetration – the UK is above 80%!

So what can we expect from mobile platforms in the future? Despite already being in full and wide use across many devices and operating systems; we at Zeelous are excited to see the development of Near Field Communication (NFC) and QR technology. Many new handsets are equipped with NFC systems which facilitate proximity marketing as well as allowing for data sharing as seen with the popular S-Beam on the Samsung Galaxy SIII and soon coming SIV.

However, it is the coming possibilities of NFC that have our office in a buzz. Have you heard of Google Wallet yet? Google Wallet is a mobile payment system developed by Google that allows its users to store debit cards, credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards among other things, as well as redeeming sales promotions on their mobile phone. Using NFC to “make secure payments fast and convenient by simply tapping the phone on any PayPass-enabled terminal at checkout.”.

In addition, in some countries such as Austria and Dubai , NFC is currently being trialled or used to pay for public transport. NFC Forum director Debbie Arnold has commented that NFC “enables a lot of things” in terms of transportation and also indicated that several meetings regarding the integration of NFC into passenger check-in, ticket issue and departure lounge entrance, with large US airlines have gone successfully.